Quantum Ergotropy and Quantum Feedback Control

Abstract: We study the energy extraction from and charging to a finite-dimensional quantum system by general quantum operations. We prove that the changes in energy induced by unital quantum operations are limited by the ergotropy/charging bound for unitary quantum operations. This implies that, in order to break the ergotropy/charging bound for unitary quantum operations, one needs to perform a quantum operation with feedback control. We also show that the ergotropy/charging bound for unital quantum operations, applied to initial thermal equilibrium states, is tighter than the inequality representing the standard second law of thermodynamics without feedback control.